July 9, 2015

Music, television, traffic, concerts. The
sounds of our lives. If you reside in a big city, you may be familiar with
sounds of sirens, trains or other forms of public transportation. To hear
someone honking their horn is as normal as going to work every day. However,
for some, noises can be extremely detrimental and crippling to their life. Some
cannot handle loud noises and feel that their safety is in jeopardy because of
them. Ligyrophobia is the fear of loud noises.

Causes of Ligyrophobia:

To an extent the fear of loud noises is
in-built in humans. Right since the dawn of mankind, any new, sharp or loud
sound would drive humans to take cover in order to keep themselves safe. Children
are more likely to suffer from phonophobia as they are more sensitive to sound
stimuli from as early as infancy. For most children, this fear is transient and
passes with time. In some cases though, especially when there has been a
traumatic or negative incident associated with the loud noise, the fear can
become permanently etched on their mind. This is actually a mechanism used by
the mind to defend itself from further trauma- by using the same conditioned
response of fear over and over –it tries to protect the individual from further
bad news/experience.

Symptoms of Ligyrophobia:

People suffering from Phonophobia show
different symptoms based on the intensity of their fear: Nausea, fainting and
sweating are some of the most common symptoms while the desire to flee from the
noisy place is another highly reported symptom in sufferers of Ligyrophobia.